


simple comforts

by witchboys



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Domestic Fluff, M/M, botanist!adam, high school teacher!ronan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchboys/pseuds/witchboys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>headcanon: ronan teaches latin and and adam works late in his lab, but they always end up on the same cheap ikea mattress at the end of the night</p>
            </blockquote>





	simple comforts

Adam is focusing intently at an organism that he’s picking apart carefully with a pair of tweezers when Ronan waltzes into the laboratory with a careless slam of the door.

 

Adam’s head is still down as fiddles with his microscope as Ronan slots himself next to him. 

 

“Did your grade-level meeting end early or are you just here to bother me again?”

 

“Who me? Bothering you? How could you accuse me of such a thing?”

 

The corner of Adam’s mouth lifts up slightly, but he continues to adjust the microscope lens without pause.

 

“Well I’m pretty sure the other assistants are starting to question why a guy with a shaved head, a biker jacket, and a scowl keeps lurking around the lab. Frequently, I might add.”

 

He finally twists in his chair and faces Ronan with a tilt of a head and flashes a grin.

 

“But I must say, I do like that you bring dinner for me every time.”

 

“I’ll be sure to wave or send a wink to your lab mates the next time I come in.”

 

“Perfect. I think that’ll work out just fine.”

 

Ronan snorts as he places both hands on Adam’s shoulders, bending down to place a kiss on his smiling mouth.

 

“Don’t come home too late, alright? It’s Friday and I don’t want to have to drive out past midnight to drag your ass back home when I find you half-passed out on your desk,” Ronan says as they move apart.

 

“Oh please. It’s not as if you’re already sleeping at that time. You’re probably going to be up binge-watching cute animal videos on television or playing that puzzle game with the candy.”

 

“Don’t you dare use cute animals against me. That’s just playing dirty.”

 

“Says the person who decided to record me singing in the shower without me knowing and said it was going to be ‘great blackmail material’.”

 

They both have mischievous glints in their eyes and it’s as if they’ve suddenly transformed back into a couple of high school boys bantering back and forth with one another with no real harm or anger behind their teasing.

 

Ronan finally lifts his hands from Adam’s shoulder --  Adam mourns the loss of warmth and tries to savor the last bit of heat still left there.

 

“Well, if that wasn’t my cue to leave, I don’t know what is. I guess it’s about time that I leave you back to poking at your plants. I gotta feed Chainsaw before she starts gnawing on what’s left of the dining room chairs.”

 

Ronan is busy re-adjusting his jacket as Adam gets up from his seat.

 

“I promise I’ll be back home earlier tonight, okay? I can’t promise I’ll be out of the lab by 10 pm, but I’ll try my best to finish up this part of the experiment by then.”

 

Ronan pauses his movements and meets Adam’s gaze with a smirk.

 

“I’ll be waiting for you with cute animal videos all loaded up and ready for us to watch by the time you get home.”

 

“Guess there’s something to look forward to then,” Adam replies back as he leans forward to kiss Ronan lightly on the cheek.

 

\--------

 

Keeping his word, Adam finds himself inside of his home a little past 10:20 pm and dropping his bag on a bench as he kicks off his shoes in the front entrance.

 

Placing his loafers neatly on a shelf next to a pair of scuffed-up combat boots of a shoe size much larger than his, he wanders into the living room hoping to find what he’s looking for.

 

Or more precisely, who he’s looking for.

 

Sure enough, he finds Ronan on the couch with his legs propped up on the coffee table and a rather sleepy Bombay nestled in his lap. The television on the wall is playing some sort of game show and only the lamps on the side tables offer any additional lighting to the room.

 

Slipping off his blazer and hanging it up on the coat rack stood up next to their shelf of dvds, Adam walks over and curls up next to the two other inhabitants on the couch.

 

“I thought you were going to prepare us a montage of cute animal videos tonight or did I hear that incorrectly?” Adam asks and turns to the side to face Ronan.

 

“I kinda got sidetracked when I found out they have reruns of old school game shows on this channel, but I’m definitely making you watch that viral video of those ducklings that came out today. Don’t you worry, Parrish.”

 

“I have no doubt in my mind that you won’t let me go to bed without being subjected by your playlist of animal videos that you constantly update on your phone.”

 

“Everybody loves a good cat video to end the night. Honestly, as a household that owns a cat, we should honor Chainsaw by watching videos of her brethren,” Ronan says sternly as he begins to scratch said cat’s head behind the ears.

 

Chainsaw opens her eyes momentarily, sensing the sudden movement, until they droop back closed and starts to purr with content.

 

Adam suddenly is struck with an internal battle and wishes. that he could grab his phone that happens to be in his blazer to capture this moment. For good blackmail material, of course.

 

“Speaking of ducklings, don’t your students follow you around like baby ducks?”

 

“Are you trying to compare my students to a bunch of farm animals?,” Ronan asks in a gruff voice.

 

“No, I just think it’s endearing,” Adam grins. “They hang onto your every word in class and they love to run up to you to say hi whenever you’re in the hallways or off-campus.”

 

“It’s not endearing when you have all of your students conjugating Latin verbs wrong when you taught them how to do it properly a month ago.”

 

“Well, that’s funny. Just the other night you were practically boasting about how Gabe received almost full marks on his weekly quiz when a few weeks ago he was barely pulling a passing grade.”

 

Ronan makes a noncommittal noise as he slides further down the couch as if to shield himself from Adam’s teasing, but the pink on his cheeks already proves that Adam has won this round.

 

Feeling smug, Adam shifts closer to Ronan and places his head onto his shoulder. Ronan grunts in response and they fall into a comfortable silence as both of their eyes focus on the television program playing in front of them.

 

“How was work today? Having fun doing your nerdy science shit?” Ronan asks as one of the contestants on the screen guesses an answer wrong.

 

Adam hums thoughtfully. 

 

“If by nerdy science shit you mean having to type up an excel worksheet and entering in over fifty pieces of data information, then not really. I rather be -- what did you say earlier? Poking at my plants? That is definitely more fun.”

 

“I have no idea what kind of alien planet you came from to have you actually find some sort of enjoyment staring at weird leafy things growing in dishes while being locked in a dark room, but I guess that’s why you’re the crazy science guy.”

 

“You mean wise, not crazy,” Adam corrects. “And I’m a botanist. I’m pretty sure staring at weird leafy things all day part of my job, if not the main purpose.”

 

“Anyways, this experiment is just in the beginning stages. I’m probably going to have to stay in the office longer once we get closer to the publication deadline, but that won’t be for another six or eight months.”

 

“Well, that’s just fantastic. That means six or eight more months before the torture period begins when I have to haul your ass into my car with you drooling all over the front seat.”

 

Adam shoots Ronan a glare while his partner pointedly avoids his gaze.

 

“I do not drool, Lynch. If we’re talking about sleeping habits here, you’re the one who decided to fall asleep halfway into that car chase movie at the theater and kept snoring louder and louder until I had to elbow you awake so that you would finally stop.”

 

“I do not recall this ever happening,” Ronan whistles out innocently.

 

“Of course you don’t remember this happening because you fell _asleep_.”

 

Ronan suddenly stretches out his arms and yawns.

 

“Speaking of sleeping, it’s about high time we get to bed.”

 

Adam looks up at the clock hanging above the television and sighs.

 

“I don’t even know how it’s already 11:55 pm, but we should probably get some sleep if we’re going to Matthew’s baseball game in the afternoon. We need to remember to bring the nicer camera this time so that we could print out some photos to give to your mom.”

 

“I don’t think we’ve printed out any photos since that time we all took that trip to the beach back in July, so that’d be nice."

 

As Ronan finishes his sentence, he begins to slowly scoop up Chainsaw -- who miraculously seems unfazed from all of the jostling -- and Adam gets up from the couch so that the three of them can make their way down the hallway towards the bedroom together.

 

Adam flips on the light switch in the adjacent bathroom, while Ronan comes shuffling in behind him to place Chainsaw in her own cat bed. The cat bed is only a temporary fixture for the night though, since she has a habit of sneaking into their bed to bury herself underneath the sheets. 

 

It’s a bit silly that Adam and Ronan haven’t just thrown out the cat bed at this point, but they still hold onto the sliver of hope that someday she’ll stay sleeping in her own bed and they won’t have to wake up every morning with their lump of a cat laying on top of one of their faces.

 

Adam and Ronan eventually hop into bed and they both sigh with content as they envelop themselves with layers of thick blankets. Wrapped up in warm sheets and a soft pillow, Adam feels as if this is his own personal heaven -- shared with Ronan, naturally.

 

“Weren’t you going to show me that duck video? Now would be a good time because any second longer and my eyes could shut for all of eternity,” Adam murmurs with his eyes already half-closed.

 

“If you would let me scoot over without your arms taking up three-fourths of the bed, I could. Right now it’s kind of impossible,” Ronan huffs.

 

After a short moment of rearranging arms and legs and bodies, they finally settle back down comfortably with their heads tilted towards each other and Ronan’s chest slightly pressed up against Adam’s side.

 

Ronan slings one arm around Adam’s pillow while the other arm lays on his own chest, hand clasped with his phone.

 

He angles the phone so that the both of them can see the tiny screen properly and he thumbs the play button so that the video can start.

 

Their otherwise quiet and dark room is instantaneously illuminated with a bright phone screen and tiny indecipherable chirps emitting from the tinny speakers.

 

The clip goes on for a couple of minutes and within that time Adam lets out a small laugh as he watches a duckling unsuccessfully attempting to hop onto a step at the bottom of a staircase, while Ronan breaks into a smug grin as if to say: See? This video was totally worth watching at midnight, wasn’t it?

 

The video ends and Adam finds himself falling even further on the verge of sleep. 

 

After Ronan sets the alarm on his phone and carelessly throws it on top of the side table, he makes his way to further spoon Adam. Sensing this, Adam musters up his remaining energy and shifts around to allow Ronan’s chest to be fully flushed against his back.

 

Ronan slings an arm around Adam’s waist as he mumbles into a tumble of dusty locks, “Sweet dreams, Adam.”

 

Adam finally closes his eyes completely and allows himself to be consumed by sleep with a smile resting on his face.

 

“See you in the morning, Ronan.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> i too, like ronan, watch animal videos religiously before bed. apparently maggie stiefvater has also stated that this is true and i feel so #blessed.


End file.
